Category Archives: ELECTIONS

Andrew Breitbart was right about Pigford.

In a random act of real journalism, the NY Times finally got around to digging into the Pigford case, in essence vindicating Breitbart, and filed this story on April 25th, 2013:

Farm Loan Bias Claims, Often Unsupported, Cost U.S. Millions

In the winter of 2010, after a decade of defending the government against bias claims by Hispanic and female farmers, Justice Department lawyers seemed to have victory within their grasp.

Ever since the Clinton administration agreed in 1999 to make $50,000 payments to thousands of black farmers, the Hispanics and women had been clamoring in courtrooms and in Congress for the same deal. They argued, as the African-Americans had, that biased federal loan officers had systematically thwarted their attempts to borrow money to farm.

But a succession of courts — and finally the Supreme Court — had rebuffed their pleas. Instead of an army of potential claimants, the government faced just 91 plaintiffs. Those cases, the government lawyers figured, could be dispatched at limited cost.

They were wrong.

On the heels of the Supreme Court’s ruling, interviews and records show, the Obama administration’s political appointees at the Justice and Agriculture Departments engineered a stunning turnabout: they committed $1.33 billion to compensate not just the 91 plaintiffs but thousands of Hispanic and female farmers who had never claimed bias in court.

The deal, several current and former government officials said, was fashioned in White House meetings despite the vehement objections — until now undisclosed — of career lawyers and agency officials who had argued that there was no credible evidence of widespread discrimination. What is more, some protested, the template for the deal — the $50,000 payouts to black farmers — had proved a magnet for fraud.

Read the whole thing.

Breitbart.com, is naturally running a front page story on this turn of events:

NYTIMES CONFIRMS: MASSIVE FRAUD AT USDA IN PIGFORD; BREITBART VINDICATED

The New York Timesreported Friday that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has likely enabled massive fraud in the Pigford series of legal settlements, in which black, Hispanic, female and Native American farmers have claimed to be victims of past discrimination.

The cost of the settlements, which could exceed $4.4 billion, is the result of a process that “became a runaway train, driven by racial politics, pressure from influential members of Congress and law firms that stand to gain more than $130 million in fees,” the Times notes.

Among those influential members of Congress was then-Senator Barack Obama, who made Pigford payouts a priority in exchange for political support for his 2008 presidential campaign among a coveted group of black voters in the rural South, the Times reports.

As president, Obama continued to support payouts for new groups of claimants while abandoning a review process that had been used to fight fraud. The aim was “buying the support” of minorities, according to the Times, while middlemen created a “cottage industry” in defrauding the government.

A little more background on it from Breitbart himself (via Lee Stranahan on Twitter):

Implications in North Carolina for Kay Hagan’s 2014 Reelection

Without question, Kay Hagan has been 100% in support of Pigford. Hagan’s office from the start was on board behind President Obama in this fleecing of the taxpayer, which was in essence boiled down to buying Democrat support in rural areas.
From Hagan’s office in 2010 via Project Vote Smart: Hagan to Attend Presidential Signing Ceremony for Pigford Farmers’ Bill

Excerpt:

“Since coming to the Senate, I have worked to right this wrong for farmers in North Carolina and across the country,” said Hagan. “In North Carolina, African American farmers were discriminated against and denied just compensation for decades. This is a historic day. With this law, our farmers are finally receiving the justice they deserve.” Continue reading →